Michelle Rhee is stepping down as the CEO of StudentsFirst to focus on her family and supporting her husband. After being tossed out of the DC school system, Rhee founded StudentsFirst in 2011 as part of her quixotic crusade to blame the problems in America’s education system on teachers and their unions. Despite a limited background in teaching – outside of bug eating in the classroom she briefly taught at – Rhee decided she knew the best way to run education in America though she would later face criticism when it was revealed that during her time as DC school chancellor Rhee had presided over a massive cheating scandal instigated by the policies she was promoting at StudentsFirst.

With Michelle Rhee’s effort to bust the teachers unions falling flat from incompetence and corruption, the privatizing crowd wanted a new face for the brand and found one with former news anchor Campbell Brown. Brown, who is married to former Bush apparatchik Dan Senor, is ready for her debut as the new face of “ed reform.” But can a new facade fool the people?

Campbell Brown recently went on the Colbert Report to promote the group she heads, the Partnership for Educational Justice (PEJ). During the interview it became clear that Brown was not interested in revealing who was funding the group.

An election campaign now being fought almost completely out of public view could radically alter the way California’s school children are taught. If Marshall Tuck unseats incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, the state’s public education system could become a laboratory for a movement that prizes privatization and places a high value on student test scores over traditional instruction. The contrasts between the two top contenders in the nonpartisan race could not be more dramatic – nor could the stakes for the country’s largest education system.

Are job protections for teachers to blame for educational underachievement among low-income students of color in California? That’s the provocative question ostensibly at the heart of Vergara vs. California, which seeks to invalidate the tenure, due process and seniority rights of hundreds of thousands of educators.

Astute observers of the nation’s escalating education wars, however, may be asking another question: When did it become permissible to use the welfare of children as a fig leaf for an all-out legal attack on teachers?

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan doubled down on his “white suburban moms” comment concerning the Common Core Standards. Duncan at first said opposition to the Common Core State Standards was interesting because “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

The privatization of public education movement sometimes called “ed reform” has always had one fatal flaw – none of their claims are supported by the evidence. In modern American politics being completely nonfactual is only a minor handicap, especially if like the “ed reform” movement you have money behind your agenda. Just shout louder and bribe anyone who still has their hearing left.

Apparently the above anti-union ad played non-stop on television in Chicago throughout the strike. It’s the product of Education Reform Now, a group that also sometimes goes by Democrats for Education Reform, depending on what pot of money they want to use. Formed in 2005, Education Reform Now has spent millions of dollars over the past few years, whether massaging public opinion or lobbying state legislatures or intervening in school board races.

Two facts help explain the dichotomy on education in the Democratic platform. First, teachers make up a substantial portion of the delegates in Charlotte this week. Second, the Obama Administration is committed to education reforms that really stand in contrast to the goals of most teacher’s unions. They have worked around this tension for four years, but in the platform you see it come to a head.

I think it’s important that this is part of Michelle Rhee’s legacy, while I’m not necessarily holding her responsible. She put a premium on success at DC schools, and that pressure can lead to some dastardly things. Moreover, if the Noyes School is found to have cheated on standardized tests, it invalidates a lot of the results Rhee held up as a model in how to best teach students.